View Full Version : J.K. Rowling Reveals 'Harry Potter' Character Dumbledore Is Gay
Gawain of Orkeny
10-24-2007, 04:27
J.K. Rowling Reveals 'Harry Potter' Character Dumbledore Is Gay (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,303760,00.html)
Who cares. Did any of you imagine?
Pretty dangerous stuff. Reading about gay people can make you gay in the same way that reading about tall people can make you tall.
I say do whatever must be done to protect teh children. Book burnings smack of the NSDA, so maybe we just need to invest in some industrial shredders.
Gawain of Orkeny
10-24-2007, 04:33
Pretty dangerous stuff. Reading about gay people can make you gay in the same way that reading about tall people can make you tall.
Its not in the book:idea2: Why tell everyone the secret?
DemonArchangel
10-24-2007, 05:00
Do I care?
Nope.
Papewaio
10-24-2007, 05:06
Hmm lets see:
Wears a dress.
Has a fetish for 'wands'.
Only bird in his chambers is an actual bird.
Probably has access to more stardust and crystals then Liberace
IrishArmenian
10-24-2007, 05:37
Pretty dangerous stuff. Reading about gay people can make you gay in the same way that reading about tall people can make you tall.
I say do whatever must be done to protect teh children. Book burnings smack of the NSDA, so maybe we just need to invest in some industrial shredders.
Hehehehehe! Very true!:idea2:
I never read these books, though, and have no real opinion on the matter because of that.
Hmm lets see:
Wears a dress.
Has a fetish for 'wands'.
Only bird in his chambers is an actual bird.
Probably has access to more stardust and crystals then Liberace
:laugh4: :laugh4: :laugh4:
AntiochusIII
10-24-2007, 05:52
So it's like, he's gay for Harry?
That's hawt. :2thumbsup:
...err, I mean, that's cool. That's open, etc., etc. :juggle2:
IrishArmenian
10-24-2007, 05:58
Were the books in questions any good?
And Antiochus, I'm laughing so exuberantly at that last remark! (I deliberately tried not to say 'hard' so as to avoid the Greg-esque pun patrol)
Papewaio
10-24-2007, 06:26
I'm not sure if they are 'good' but they are certainly popular:
As of April 2007, the first six books in the seven book series have sold more than 325 million copies[3] and have been translated into more than 64 languages
And the author:
The 2007 Sunday Times Rich List estimated Rowling's fortune at £545 million, ranking her as the 136th richest person and the thirteenth richest woman in Britain.
HoreTore
10-24-2007, 07:04
Bah.
It's not written by a frenchman, and there are no musketeers in it. How can it be any good then?
AntiochusIII
10-24-2007, 07:16
And Antiochus, I'm laughing so exuberantly at that last remark! (I deliberately tried not to say 'hard' so as to avoid the Greg-esque pun patrol)
lol.
As for the books, I can't say for the others, but I like them. Haven't yet read the 7th though. The first ones were the best in the children's books sense -- I thought the sense of magical adventure that they convey was really great. Many other fantasy books fail at that basic achievement, which in my opinion is the best thing about the whole fantasy genre enchilada.
However, literary critics would hesitate to point to them as technical masterpieces.
It's not written by a frenchman, and there are no musketeers in it. How can it be any good then?
Have you been reading Les Trois Mousquetaires or some such?
HoreTore
10-24-2007, 07:36
Have you been reading Les Trois Mousquetaires or some such?
Currently reading "Queen Margot", the last Dumas' book I've managed to get hold of here...
Personally, I think it's a stupid, PC, move on her part... but I have a hard time caring. I never read any of the books and the movies have been going downhill pretty consistently imo, so I don't really have a dog in this fight. :shrug:
It's.......rather peculiar imho, a rather obvious dunnowhat. A bit preachy, my guess would be that Rowling is lesbian and just couldn't resist raising dialogue.
I read the beginning of her first book and am now considering suing her to get that hour of my life back.....horrible writing...
other than that....I really don´t care.
They are fantastic imho, GO HARRY!!!
Delicious humor, great characters, fun parallel world with all the red tape of the real one, great stuff.
Philippus Flavius Homovallumus
10-24-2007, 11:05
As an English student I have to say the first book offended me, I don't know if they got better and I'm not bothered.
Don Corleone
10-24-2007, 13:24
I read the books and I actually liked them. I thought they were decent stories. Rowling has a way of making you empathize and feel genuine concern about her characters.
Were Dumbledore known to be gay all along, or had it revealed in the story, I wouldn't have had any problems with it. I do however resent this chicanery. I strongly suspect now that book sales are sagging, and she can't market #8, she decided to revive sales on #7 with this little juicy tidbit. She and her publishers probably watched the book slide off the NY Times top 10 and decided it was time to put plan Lambda into affect.
Maybe I'm just a little too cynical, but don't forget, she also flashed her boobs in a press conference a couple of days earlier. For some people, those 15 minutes are just over too soon.
Big King Sanctaphrax
10-24-2007, 14:52
I've got no problem with him being gay, but I'm with DC here. Why not write it into the book? Coming out with this now just seems cynical and a bit gutless.
macsen rufus
10-24-2007, 15:17
Sorry, who are these people?
:wizard:
Ok, so I just wanted an excuse to use that smiley ~D
Bulawayo
10-24-2007, 16:47
Just watch out for that wicked broomstick!
http://www.peterrivard.com/Pages/potter.html :laugh4:
I read the books and I actually liked them. I thought they were decent stories. Rowling has a way of making you empathize and feel genuine concern about her characters.
Were Dumbledore known to be gay all along, or had it revealed in the story, I wouldn't have had any problems with it. I do however resent this chicanery. I strongly suspect now that book sales are sagging, and she can't market #8, she decided to revive sales on #7 with this little juicy tidbit. She and her publishers probably watched the book slide off the NY Times top 10 and decided it was time to put plan Lambda into affect.
Maybe I'm just a little too cynical, but don't forget, she also flashed her boobs in a press conference a couple of days earlier. For some people, those 15 minutes are just over too soon.
According to her it IS in the books. It's just subtle.
I really don't care, read the books when I was younger. Now it's just boring. who cares actually?
Louis VI the Fat
10-24-2007, 17:36
I strongly suspect now that book sales are sagging, and she can't market #8, she decided to revive sales on #7 with this little juicy tidbit.
don't forget, she also flashed her boobs in a press conference Were they sagging as much as her book sales then?
Or could there be another explanation? For a start, #7 was always going to be the last of the series. No #8 is planned. Besides, I don't think slopy sales are any concern of J.K. Rowling.
Maybe, just maybe, like a good (fantasy) novelist, the bits of the characters and worlds we see are but the tip of the iceburg. Underneath, hidden from view, they are part of a larger whole. A whole that isn't explicitly written out in all detail, but that is there nonetheless, and that butresses the visible parts of fantasy worlds. This is the key to any 'suspension of disbelief'. Lord of the Rings, Star wars, etc. rely on this too.
I suspect J.K.Rowling had always, in her mind, thought of Dumbledore as a gay character, and based his actions and emotions on this. I suspect that to the careful reader - at least, to one sharing her ideas about teh gay mind - the outing of the sexual preference of Dumbledore wouldn't have come as any surprise.
Don Corleone
10-24-2007, 18:53
Were they sagging as much as her book sales then?
Or could there be another explanation? For a start, #7 was always going to be the last of the series. No #8 is planned. Besides, I don't think slopy sales are any concern of J.K. Rowling.
Maybe, just maybe, like a good (fantasy) novelist, the bits of the characters and worlds we see are but the tip of the iceburg. Underneath, hidden from view, they are part of a larger whole. A whole that isn't explicitly written out in all detail, but that is there nonetheless, and that butresses the visible parts of fantasy worlds. This is the key to any 'suspension of disbelief'. Lord of the Rings, Star wars, etc. rely on this too.
I suspect J.K.Rowling had always, in her mind, thought of Dumbledore as a gay character, and based his actions and emotions on this. I suspect that to the careful reader - at least, to one sharing her ideas about teh gay mind - the outing of the sexual preference of Dumbledore wouldn't have come as any surprise.
Actually, I've always thought of Dumbledore as a rather asexual character. Wouldn't 'guessing' that he's gay, when there were no overt or even implicit references to his sexuality make one guilty of playing to stereotypes?
Again, it would actually make a lot of sense, given the story-lines. My problem isn't with the plot device itself, its with what I see as shameless pandering to increase sales. Were I a member of the gay community, I'd actually be a little miffed that this was thought of as an afterthought, and that I'm so shallow and vapid that by declaring a character to be gay, ex post facto, I will now all of a sudden buy into the whole Harry Potter mania, when I hadn't done so already.
HoreTore
10-24-2007, 18:55
Actually, I've always thought of Dumbledore as a rather asexual character. Wouldn't 'guessing' that he's gay, when there were no overt or even implicit references to his sexuality make one guilty of playing to stereotypes?
Stereotypes are very common in movies and books...
English assassin
10-24-2007, 19:13
Were I a member of the gay community, I'd actually be a little miffed that this was thought of as an afterthought, and that I'm so shallow and vapid that by declaring a character to be gay, ex post facto, I will now all of a sudden buy into the whole Harry Potter mania, when I hadn't done so already.
Oh, come on. This is JK Rowling. What makes you think her manipulation is going to be any better plotted than her books?
Besides, I like my manipulation obvious. In case anyone on the org works in marketing, can I tell them that I absolutely WILL buy the product, any product, that is advertised by the girl with the nicest ladybumps. I don't care how good your pension plans are, how many miles to the gallon the car you are selling does, or what your political party stands for, I say show me the breasts.
(Obviously even JKR realised this would not work for gays. hence outing Dumbledore)
rotorgun
10-24-2007, 20:44
Dumbledore is Gay? Man....that is so gay! What a disappointment to see the author become involved in such a sordid publicity stunt. :thumbsdown:
Gregoshi
10-24-2007, 20:56
Rowling told the audience that while working on the planned sixth Potter film, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,303760,00.html#)," she spotted a reference in the script to a girl who once was of interest to Dumbledore. A note was duly passed to director David Yates, revealing the truth about her character.
It was a script writer that outted Dumbledore. Otherwise, he would have been asexual - as Don appropriately described him. Think Louis's point is spot on. Dumbledore's background was probably outlined to help guide Rowling's writing of the character. When the movie script delved into an area not openly discussed in the books, she felt necessary to keep Dumbledore true to character in the movie and have the script adjusted. Hence the note to the director and the outting.
Boyar Son
10-24-2007, 22:54
lol:laugh4:
Evil_Maniac From Mars
10-24-2007, 23:55
So it's like, he's gay for Harry?
I don't think I'll ever be able to watch the next movie without laughing.
Nothing against gays, of course, but I still remember the part in the first book where Dumbledore was watching Harry multiple times in front of the Mirror of Erised - but only revealed himself once.
Papewaio
10-25-2007, 00:09
Maybe I'm just a little too cynical, but don't forget, she also flashed her boobs in a press conference a couple of days earlier. For some people, those 15 minutes are just over too soon.
I think you are being too cynical... she did not flash her boobs... that would imply that what she did was on purpose. As she sat down her dress was pulled down (and more so on the side with the microphone)... she looked very embarrassed when she saw what happened and stood up immediately and adjusted herself.
After all that she was wearing a bra that was more modest then most bikini's.
And breasts are just breasts. It's like getting all upset everytime you see a carton of milk.
One of my sister's friends was at school with JK Rowling - from that account, she was a shy bookworm. I doubt she deliberately did a Janette Jackson to sell her books; she has probably sold quite enough already and values her dignity more than a few more column inches.
I can see some logic in JK's account of the gay thing - that Dumbledore's sexuality provides a motivation for his flirting with the ideas of the Nazi wizard in the 1930s (Grindelward or some such). I remember at the time thinking that the darkening of Dumbledore's reputation seemed a little arbitrary in the last book. The gay thing is a bit meh as an explanation (although it does have echoes of the 1930s British spies recruited by the Russians), but it is better than nothing.
I enjoyed the books and think the films have been getting better, but each to his own.
TevashSzat
10-25-2007, 02:08
And so thats why he's so obcessed with Harry...
ELITEofWARMANGINGERYBREADMEN88
10-25-2007, 02:49
Do I care?
Nope.
Argeed... Don't Know, Don't Really Care. I want 5 minutes of my life back from reading this thread now :sweatdrop:
Between this thread and the Limbaugh navel-gazing, we've hit a new level of irrelevance in the Backroom. Not that I'm complaining, mind you.
Crazed Rabbit
10-25-2007, 03:53
Says the guy who started the news of the weird thread. ~;p
CR
Like I said, I'm not complaining. I kind of enjoy irrelevance.
Louis VI the Fat
10-25-2007, 11:44
Bah, it's only the yanks who clutter the Backroom with all these irrelevant celebrity navel-gazing threads. :no:
Would you people mind cutting it down a bit? Thanks. We, the Euros and Ozzies, are trying to run important threads here about serious matters like pr0n*200, the spoils of Belgium and Reich re-enactment, okay?
Devastatin Dave
10-25-2007, 16:38
My wife reads the books and I've noticed lately her hair cut is a little more short, wears comfortable shoes, and on occasion, calls me Sally during climax. Hmmmmmm
Louis VI the Fat
10-27-2007, 17:56
I'm sorry, but I think the true meaning of J.K. Rowling's (Britain's leading literary genius) important body of work is simply lost on English speaking audiences. :no:
Potter is a lefty, says French philosopher
(AFP)
26 October 2007
PARIS - Harry Potter is a left-winger and the seven books by J.K. Rowling are a diatribe against Thatcherite Britain, a French philosopher said on Friday on the day of the last novel’s publication in French.
“It must be said from the start that Harry Potter is deeply political and that the books speak of today’s England,” Jean-Claude Milner told the left-wing newspaper Liberation.
“Reading it, one can see that J.K. Rowling - like many cultured English people - believes there was a real Thatcherite revolution, that it was a disaster, and that culture’s only chance is to survive as an occult science.”
According to Milner, Harry’s world of magic - and especially the elite public school setting of the Hogwarts school of wizardry - offer a means of resistance against a triumphant middle-class represented by the non-magic Muggles.
“Harry’s uncle and aunt - Muggles par excellence - live like heroes of Margaret Thatcher’s world, in a neat little estate where all the houses are identical,” he said.
“One can equally say that modern England is a world where the Muggles have indeed taken power, first with Margaret Thatcher and then with Tony Blair - a world where the omnipotence of the middle class is given free rein,” he said.
According to Milner - a professor of linguistics at Paris university - the scene in “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” in which Harry’s aunt is blown up like a balloon is a satire on Thatcher.
“Here we can see a reference to (the film) “The Great Dictator’ by Chaplin, featuring an all-powerful middle class figure gone mad. And one cannot help but note that the aunt is called Marge - a clear allusion to Thatcher.”
For Milner, Hogwarts provides a refuge for the minority who wish to preserve civilisation from the dangers of globalisation. And he says Rowling’s use of Latin and Greek words in her magic vocabulary is a kind of antidote against the value-for-money society of modern Britain.
“In the world of Hogwarts there are certainly inequalities. But at the same time, since culture is open to all, Hermione - the child of Muggles - can outperform Malfoy, the child of wizards,” he said.
“So what appears as elitist is in fact real equality, as opposed to the false equality of the Muggles. In this, Harry Potter is a war-machine against Thatchero-Blairism and the “American way of life’.
“J.K. Rowling is a real libertarian motivated by a desire to conserve. It is as if she is saying ... the real magicians are not Tony Blair’s spin-doctors but people who know Latin and Greek.”
As for the evil Voldemort, he is the “super-spin doctor”. A wizard himself, he is proof that culture alone is not enough to save the world. Power-mad, he differs from good wizards because he lacks ”nobility of soul”.
“So we have on one side the Muggles, where oppression means power over things; and on the other hand Hogwarts, where knowledge enables one to resist the materialism of the Muggles -- but also opens the way to power over people.
“This terrible power, which Voldemort seeks and which we call tyranny, is one of the themes of Harry Potter -- and indeed one of the themes of English literature since Dickens and Orwell,” he said.
Some British critics have in the past accused J.K. Rowling of conservatism for setting her books in a nostalgic era of boarding-schools and steam trains.
The finale of the series -- “Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows” -- went on sale in France and Germany Friday, three months after it came out in the English-speaking world.
Kralizec
10-28-2007, 02:20
“It must be said from the start that Harry Potter is deeply political and that the books speak of today’s England,” Jean-Claude Milner told the left-wing newspaper Liberation.
“Reading it, one can see that J.K. Rowling - like many cultured English people - believes there was a real Thatcherite revolution, that it was a disaster, and that culture’s only chance is to survive as an occult science."
What a tremedous jackass.
He is being serious, isn't he?
ICantSpellDawg
10-29-2007, 16:19
"Dumbledore is Gay? I hadn't heard this, I was to busy not caring about the sexual habits of fictional people."
-The Onion
Never mind the gay wizard, what about the bloke with the giant for a mother and human for a father... ? :book2::inquisitive:
Seamus Fermanagh
10-29-2007, 22:10
Never mind the gay wizard, what about the bloke with the giant for a mother and human for a father... ? :book2::inquisitive:
Are you deploring misegenation or requesting artwork of the event?:wiseguy:
Are you deploring misegenation or requesting artwork of the event?:wiseguy:
As they say on Digg, "Pics or it didn't happen."
ShadesPanther
11-01-2007, 19:01
And it mentions the father is "vertically challenged" to begin with.
edyzmedieval
11-03-2007, 11:52
Pull out the pics or we don't believe you.
I actually wonder why she had actually said that. :inquisitive:
AntiochusIII
11-03-2007, 18:27
I actually wonder why she had actually said that. :inquisitive:Read Gregoshi's post on the top of the third page.
And no, it's not about puns.
Gregoshi
11-04-2007, 19:17
Read Gregoshi's post on the top of the third page.
And no, it's not about puns.
:laugh4: Who would have thought?
edyzmedieval
11-04-2007, 21:45
Read Gregoshi's post on the top of the third page.
And no, it's not about puns.
Then I think directors should be writing novels and bookwriters should be directing as the director says.
Seamus Fermanagh
11-04-2007, 22:35
I might have to smack Gawain for starting this thread....and it's into its 2nd week at the top of the queue. Gah!
Rhyfelwyr
11-05-2007, 23:25
Could this be why Ian McKellen was picked to act for Dumbledore after the Caesar guy from Gladiator died?
I remember hearing about his tendencies when he played Gandalf in LOTR.
Ruined the entire trilogy for me.:clown:
IrishArmenian
11-06-2007, 07:31
Ruined the entire trilogy for me.:clown:
You're joking, yes?:embarassed:
KukriKhan
11-06-2007, 15:08
I'm not overly surprised that Ms. Rowling constructed 'secret lives' of her characters. One of my guilty pleasures is being a fan of Tony Hillerman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Hillerman), author of detective novels set in the us southwest.
During an interview on C-Span that I saw last year, he shared with his audience that he had constructed 10-page biographies of his characters, to help him maintain consistency across his stories. He wouldn't reveal the details of those bio's, but did say many readers would be surprised at the 'fake backgrounds'.
So, it's not a huge leap for me to believe JKR uses something similar to build an un-published back-story about her characters, just as a writer's craft-tool. If you're planning telling multiple stories about the same imaginary people, and you want the reader to care about them, you have to give those characters depth, even if you don't mention where that depth comes from.
But yeah, "Dumbledore is Gay" makes headlines for a couple days, kinda like "Darth Vader prefers Hanes pantyhose over L'eggs" might temporarily set the SW universe on fire.
Gregoshi
11-06-2007, 17:13
But yeah, "Dumbledore is Gay" makes headlines for a couple days, kinda like "Darth Vader prefers Hanes pantyhose over L'eggs" might temporarily set the SW universe on fire.
Vader prefers Hanes over L'eggs?! Cool. So do I! :2thumbsup:
Rhyfelwyr
11-07-2007, 01:17
You're joking, yes?:embarassed:
That's why I added the :clown:
IrishArmenian
11-07-2007, 07:07
My mistake.
Rhyfelwyr
11-07-2007, 17:49
No it was my fault, having re-read the thread I didn't realise that I might have sounded a bit serious.
Still, I preferred the old Dumbledore actor though. Partly because to me Ian McKellen = Gandalf, and also because Gladiator is my favourite film of all time and I am always biased towards its actors.
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